Sore leg keeps John Jaso out of A’s lineup, Josh Reddick update

John Jaso isn’t in the lineup against a right-handed starter (Luis Mendoza), a rare occurrence, but manager Bob Melvin said that Jaso’s right leg, hit by a pitch from Texas’ Alexi Ogando on Wednesday, is still preventing him from getting behind the plate, plus Melvin thought Jaso didn’t look quite right last night.

I asked Melvin how much catching performance comes into play with a platoon catching situation – Derek Norris has caught two well-pitched games in a row, back-to-back 2-1 wins for Oakland. Melvin said that he takes everything into consideration, and, he said, “Derek is doing a nice job right now. John also has the ability, but here the last two days, Derek has been back there regularly and doing a nice job with it.”

Josh Reddick hit balls off a tee with a fungo bat yesterday, and a few with a baseball bat, and it all went well. Melvin seems cautiously optimistic that Reddick will avoid right wrist surgery (he needed left wrist surgery after the 2011 season), saying, “Everything is going pretty well.”

Reddick is eligible to come off the DL on Wednesday, but he will not be on the road trip, at least not the first half of it. He then needs to take some coaches batting practice so the A’s can get a look at his progress, and when cleared would likely go get some at-bats on a rehab assignment. That makes a return in the next week pretty unlikely, but the next homestand sounds within the realm of possibility…..if everything continues to go well.

A.J. Griffin is on the mound today and for the past three starts, he’s been using sort of a hybrid cutter-slider to left-handed hitters. Pitching coach Curt Young said it’s still a slider, but it has a little more break, sort of cutter action. To right-handers, Griffin is throwing a more typical slider.

Melvin reiterated what he’s said several times since Griffin came up last summer: “He’s wise beyond his years in his pitch mix. He understands what works for him.”

Royals personnel have buzzed about reliever Sean Doolittle this series, and a scout told me today that Doolittle’s slider is now a plus pitch to go along with his plus-plus fastball. Even the changeup is much improved, the scout said, musing – jokingly – about how much of the big-league roster his team might have to send the A’s to get Doolittle. That won’t happen, the A’s must be eyeing Doolittle as the potential closer after this season. As terrific as Grant Balfour has been, he’s a free agent after the season and the A’s won’t spend a lot of money there when they have talent like Doolittle and Ryan Cook available to pitch in that role.

The same scout said what just about every scout who sees the A’s says: “Wow, Josh Donaldson is way better than I’d ever thought he’d be.” Everyone raves over Donaldson’s defense and his consistent offensive production.

At this point, Donaldson would be the top potential All-Star among Oakland’s position players, but since the A’s never get position players selected, the best bets would be either Balfour or Doolittle. Crazy to think Donaldson, a converted catch, could be a potential All-Star third baseman and even crazier to think that Doolittle, converted from first base to pitcher not even two years ago, could be an All-Star reliever.

Doolittle is among the A’s relievers expected to be unavailable today, so we very likely could see Hideki Okajima’s Oakland debut.

If you missed it in today’s Chronicle, could the A’s Australian ties include a season-opening series there next year? The U.S. Ambassador to Australia was here yesterday and he’s hearing rumblings of a season-opener there, too. And in the Leading Off section at the bottom of that notebook, Balfour’s thoughts on Mariano Rivera getting the start in the All-Star Game.